The Exercise of Vital Powers

I’ve been made a contributor on Peach Pundit. My first post takes on the AJC’s assumption that the Senate Leadership is behind this effort.

Its not the Senate pulling the strings | Peach Pundit

Rallying the GOP troops for a fight over the budget | Political Insider

Republicans are taking this state House-Senate budget fight to lengths we never saw under Democrats.

Participants in the state Capitol tussle are bringing in outsiders. They’re bringing in The Base.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Georgia is urging its associates to e-mail letters of support to members of the Senate. And if said enthusiasts want to send House Republicans a message, they can do that, too.

Things are starting to heat up in the session and we still haven’t finished the figging project at work.

Last weekend, the Republican Liberty Caucus had their bi-annual national convention in Orlando FL. After a year away from the LP it was strange being in a room with libertarians again.
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The Republican Liberty Caucus of Georgia has endorsed Senator Casey Cagle for Lieutenant Governor.

With our leaders in Washington losing their focus on traditional conservative Republican values - fiscal responsibility, limited government, free enterprise and strong ethics - it is vital that the candidates offered up by the Republican Party in Georgia be true conservatives. The Republican Liberty Caucus of Georgia believes that Casey Cagle is such a conservative.

Casey is a successful, self made businessman who was elected to the State Senate in 1994 at the age of 28. He has compiled an impressive legislative record fighting for lower taxes, free markets and private property rights. As Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Casey was a leader in the legislative effort to simplify Georgia’s corporate tax code. He sponsored an income tax cut that passed the Senate in 2006 and has cosponsored legislation that would completely phase the state income tax out of existence. He has voted against every proposed tax increase.

Casey has also been a leader in the fight to curb eminent domain abuse, protect Second Amendment rights and cut wasteful spending. He is a founding member of the Senate Liberty Caucus. He is rated A+ by the National Rifle Association and 100% by the National Federation of Independent Business. He has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

The top two priorities of the Republican Party this year are to keep control of the Governor’s office and to increase our majority in the General Assembly. For the RLC, our pro-liberty agenda depends on these priorities being met. Casey is a man of demonstrated integrity who is free of embarrassing ethical entanglements. He truly is a conservative leader we can trust.

We believe that Casey Cagle is the best candidate for Lieutenant Governor. We believe that he will continue to be a strong defender of liberty as Lieutenant Governor. We endorse his candidacy and urge all RLC members to support his campaign. He may be reached through his campaign office at:

Casey Cagle for Lieutenant Governor
Post Office Box 489
Oakwood, Georgia 30566
www.caseycagle.com
770-536-9998

Republican Liberty Caucus of Georgia Endorsements Committee

… Republicans do support the draft. I’ve been drafted to be the acting state
chair of the Georgia Republican Liberty Caucus.

So I guess the next steps are:
o Primary Endorsements for Statewide candidates
o Gather up an organizing committee and draft the broad strokes of a set of
bylaws
o Hold a fundraiser for the PAC
o Membership recruitment
o Website enhancements (see eariler rant against gentoo)
o Hold annual convention and elect someone other than me to run this thing

From the comments at ProfessorBainBridge.com:

Winston Churchill called democracy the worst form of government except for every other form available.

The Republicans are the worst political party except for every other party that has a chance of winning elections.

Given the loony stance of the LP on key issues, I’d say “except for every other party”.

Over at Tech Central Station Pejman Yousefzadeh eloquently puts forth what I’ve said the RLC needs to focus on:

The best solution to this dilemma [government spending and regulation] is for small-government activists to become more engaged in finding primary challengers for “Me Too” Republicans in their districts and in their senatorial races. Neither the White House nor the Republican National Committee should continue to hold to the default position of automatically endorsing incumbent candidates in their re-election races. If Republican incumbents are found to have abandoned small-government principles, they should be challenged by insurgents who will fight to end the ongoing policy betrayal that is happening in the battle to limit government.

Good read.

Attendees

Todd Pull, Chair
Chris Farris, Vice Chair
Walter White, Treasurer
Tommy Sandoval

Old Business

Website
Chris Farris reports that a preliminary website is up and running and Brandon Doty is working on possible designs for the permanent website.
Statement of what we are about
Walter White has drafted a statement on the immigration problem after attending a town hall meeting on that subject. He has received comments from several members and will be incorporating them into his next draft.
Chris Farris has written an essay on why libertarians should support the FairTax which he will revise for the purposes of the RLC.
Other position papers will be done by the give-a-damn-committee (that is the person interested enough to write it).

New Business

Dues
The consensus was to establish dues at $10 per year.
Bylaws
Jennifer Doty, who is working on becoming a registered parliamentarian, has volunteered to put together bylaws for the group.
Permanent meeting time and date
It was agreed that the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm would be the time for the meeting. Jillians is not working out as it is a very loud venue at 8pm when they start trivia. Todd will find a new location.

Possible RLC-GA / RLC-Gwinnett Activities
Several possible activities were discussed for the RLC.

• Volunteer to staff Gwinnett Republican Party’s booth at the Gwinnett County Fair and other events
• March in the “Days” parades during the fall
• Distribute materials outside of sporting and other events
• County Commission Watch
  Send people to the county commission meetings to report on their activities. There is very little mainstream (or otherwise) coverage regarding what the Gwinnett County Commission is up to. Our on the ground reporter(s) can then report back to the membership with any activities the Commission is up to that we might want to support or stop. Obvious topics would be eminent domain, tax increases, spending boondoggles, etc.
• School Board Watch
  Similar to the County Commission Watch, it would be useful to have people attend county school board meetings to keep an eye on what they are up to. It would be smart to head off any silliness coming out of the school board like what we’ve seen in Cobb County recently with the laptops (and to some extent the text book stickers)
• Legislator ratings
  Citizens Against Government Waste annually publishes a list of the worst pork barrel legislators on the federal level. Other groups rank federal legislators, on privacy, civil liberties, family values, etc. We could provide a valuable service to the people of Gwinnett and Georgia by ranking our legislators by how much they have increased or decreased government intrusion in our lives. First step is to develop an objective criterion for what makes a pro and anti liberty legislator. It will probably be based on voting record, so the next thing we need to do is…..
• Legislation ratings
  Similar to the Legislator Ratings, the Legislation Ratings would track the best and worst bills to have come before the general assembly in the 2005 session. Voters can then see how their elected representatives voted on key issues.

Walter and Chris expressed interest in doing the Legislation and Legislator ratings. We all agreed to volunteer for county party events as time permits. We are still looking for volunteers to attend county commission and school board meetings.

I’ll be there. You should too.

From: Todd Pull
To: RLC-GA@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [RLC-GA] Gwinnett Organizational Meeting
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:50:42 -0700 (10:50 EDT)

The organizational meeting for the Gwinnett Affiliate is Tuesday the 14th, 7
Pm - 9 Pm, at Jillians - Discovery Mills Mall from 7 Pm - 9 Pm.

The Discovery Mills Mall is off I-85 at Sugarloaf. All are welcome to
attend.

Todd